Most methods for making mozzarella cheese, especially those for making shredded mozzarella used on many food products, require about three days and involve about nine processing steps. In general, these processing steps include: making curds in a vat, separating the curds from the whey, cooking and stretching the curds, forming the stretched curds into a ball or block, packaging the cheese ball/block, cooling the cheese ball/block, allowing the cheese to rest for several days, dicing or shredding the cheese and freezing the diced/shredded cheese for use in food products. Some mozzarella cheese-making processes also include a step where the newly formed cheese ball/block is placed in brine. Thus, mozzarella cheese production involves a number of processing steps.
Special equipment is generally used in large-scale mozzarella cheese-making facilities. Such equipment can include vats, strainers, cookers and stretchers, molders, presses, aging environments, shredders, dicers and packaging devices. Significant saving could be realized if mozzarella cheese could efficiently be made without some of these processing steps and types of equipment.
Simpler, more efficient methods for making mozzarella cheese are therefore needed.